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Thought this deserved its own thread despite having been mentioned here and there in other topics. For the rest of the year, Microsoft will be giving out two free digital games a month in a program reminiscent of Playstation Plus for Xbox Live Gold subscribers (And unlike Playstation Plus, these games remain usable even if your account reverts to free Silver status).

It started with Fable 3 back at E3 which remains available for the rest of today. New games appear on the 1st and 16th of each month with Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed 2 being the two games slated for July.

Don't worry, everybody everywhere thought that July was set for Halo 3 and AC2. It is yet another example of Microsoft being unbelievably bad at messaging for E3 this year. The end result is of course that because they were so horrible at messaging, and did nothing to correct the message when everybody reported it wrong earlier in the month, they are now suffering from a case of over-promising and under-delivering.

Don't worry, everybody everywhere thought that July was set for Halo 3 and AC2. It is yet another example of Microsoft being unbelievably bad at messaging for E3 this year. The end result is of course that because they were so horrible at messaging, and did nothing to correct the message when everybody reported it wrong earlier in the month, they are now suffering from a case of over-promising and under-delivering.

I thought this was true so much so that I bought a friend a 3 month gold for the purpose of playing online Halo with him. Sigh. I don't know how this rumor got started but if the goal was to make Microsoft look bad then it worked. If the Goal was to trick me into buying a gold sub then that worked too. Cosole industry is looking really scumy right now.

I enjoyed this game a lot, I'm kind of a 'grinder' gamer so had a good time working through the different levels, and testing out new strategies. Easy to fire it up for a quick game or two if I'm just looking to pass 15 minutes. Of course I wish I could have gotten it for free, but I'd say it was worth it.

"We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas." - Agnes Mona Flanders

I enjoyed this game a lot, I'm kind of a 'grinder' gamer so had a good time working through the different levels, and testing out new strategies. Easy to fire it up for a quick game or two if I'm just looking to pass 15 minutes. Of course I wish I could have gotten it for free, but I'd say it was worth it.

I bought it on the PC 2 years ago? maybe. Loved it. But I am a Tower defense game fanatic. Iron Brigade is my all time favorite even with the issues. If you like a very linear Tower defense game, get Defense grid.A very nice single player story.

It didn't as of about two hours ago. Was still listed for 800 points or whatever its price was. Even tried to proceed buying it but all it did was tell me I had insufficient funds and gave me some payment options to acquire points to pay for it with.

And all of their many advertisements scattered throughout the dashboard didn't have anything about it. Fable 3 yesterday had an ad about Games with Gold and had a shortcut to Fable 3's product page where it was listed for free when you clicked on the ad.

It's listed free there for me as well and 800 points if you're a Silver subscriber which is all correct. But the last time I tried to add something to my download queue there a few days ago, it prompted me to do some security thing I've been dragging my feet to do.

So until I get that taken care of, I'll have to grab it directly or wait.

Edit: Unlike earlier today, there's now an ad up for it in the dashboard so I was able to acquire it for free through that just like I was able to with Fable 3 yesterday.

I haven't seen the announcement itself so take it with a grain of salt, but supposedly Microsoft has announced that the second game to be free for Xbox Live Gold members in July via the Games with Gold promotion will be Assassin's Creed 2 starting July 16 until the end of the month. So apparently Halo 3 will be later in the year.

Does anyone know how long this program is officially slated for? Half the time I see it said that it runs until the release of the Xbox One. And the other half of the time it runs until the end of the year. Hopefully its the end of the year since it should mean several more games.

Hope a few of their top notch 1st party XBLA releases are included. I've been dragging my feet on Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Perfect Dark. $15 a download is a bit more than I'd prefer to spend for a digital release although I'm willing to since they're good enough to justify it. But I've been hoping they'd start releasing compilation discs again and as Microsoft Games Studio releases, they'd be good candidates I would think. But no luck so far so I think I'm out of luck hoping to get these on discs.

But if I could get at least one or two of them for free via this promotion, that's fine by me.

Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb confirmed this morning that Assassin's Creed 2 is the next free title in the Xbox "Games With Gold" Program. That means the Italiano assassino romp will be available for all those gratis stabs and requiescat en paces on July 16.

Announced during Microsoft's E3 press conference, the "Games with Gold" program highlighted Assassin's Creed 2 and Halo 3 on stage. After a little clarification, it turned out those two titles wouldn't be the first two games due in July. Defense Grid: The Awakening is currently free, with Ezio's exploits up next. There is no announced window for Halo 3 going free at this time.

Hope a few of their top notch 1st party XBLA releases are included. I've been dragging my feet on Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Perfect Dark. $15 a download is a bit more than I'd prefer to spend for a digital release although I'm willing to since they're good enough to justify it.

Perfect Dark Zero is part of The Xbox LIVE “Ultimate Game Sale” and is only $3 until the 8th. I've actually been waffling back and forth as to whether I should grab it or not...

Perfect Dark Zero is part of The Xbox LIVE “Ultimate Game Sale” and is only $3 until the 8th. I've actually been waffling back and forth as to whether I should grab it or not...

I was talking about Perfect Dark, not Perfect Dark Zero. XBLA got a remake of the original from the Nintendo 64 days several years ago when Rare was outsourcing remakes of its N64 catalog that also saw Banjo Kazooie and its sequel be redone and released on XBLA (And development started on remaking Goldeneye for XBLA before unclear issues that vary depending on who you ask torpedoed it).

Perfect Dark Zero is something I've owned on disc for many years and I didn't think it did a particularly nice job of living up to its pedigree. So I hope it doesn't end up being one of these freebies even though it wouldn't surprise me. Have no interest in having the Games on Demand download of it (Although if it's a freebie, I would at least "purchase" it just in case I did decide to revisit it someday and see if I enjoy it more; disc-less digital play is just fine by me when it's free but I prefer a disc if I buy something).

What it is in case you haven't noticed is they are trying out the Steam model (probably after E3 and all the fallout from that). This sale has some games permanently on sale during the sale, but also every day there are "today only" sales. If it's gone now it's probably a "today only" sale. This confused me at first as FarCry 3 was on sale the 1st day and I meant to grab it (this was after midnight EDT) but then the next morning it wasn't there. I was pissed as I've been waiting for a sale or price drop to pick up FC3. Would love to know how they define "today" because it's not going by the calendar, that's for sure.

I had a free rental of Crysis 3 from Redbox and didn't get far trying to run-and-gun, so I've been waiting for a markdown to try again, slowly. If I wait for the boxed Hunter edition to come down to $20, will I gain anything really important to the single-player campaign?...

LIVE: mikepaul

Evil intentionally does harm to innocent beings. Good will occasionally do harm to innocent beings, but it's not intentional. Try not to be Evil. Strive to be Good...

I had a free rental of Crysis 3 from Redbox and didn't get far trying to run-and-gun, so I've been waiting for a markdown to try again, slowly. If I wait for the boxed Hunter edition to come down to $20, will I gain anything really important to the single-player campaign?...

I have the 360 "Hunter Edition"; the extras are for multiplayer only and not available during the single player campaign so you will lose nothing by getting the digital version.